Huntsville Times file photoState Treasurer Kay Ivey says the switch to the lieutant governor's race offers her the best chance to provide "efficient leadership for the state of Alabama." Alabama Treasurer Kay Ivey qualified this afternoon for the Republican primary for lieutenant governor, making official rumors swirling all day that she was dropping out of the governor's race.

Ivey said the decision to enter the lieutenant governor's race was a hard one but she decided that the change to the lieutenant governor's race offered her the best chance to provide "efficient leadership for the state of Alabama."

The two-term treasurer drops out of the race for the state's top office at a time when polls showed her trailing far behind fellow Republicans Bradley Byrne and former Chief Justice Roy Moore. Ivey also trailed in the race for campaign dollars having raised far fewer of those than the leading candidates in the GOP race.